Bill Brandt

Bill Brandt, May 3rd 1904 - December 20th 1983, was a British photographer and photojournalists. He is said to be one of Britain's greatest 20th century photographers. He took up photography when living in Vienna in the 1920s, and spent three months assisting Man Ray in his studio in Paris before settling in London in 1931. from the 1930'40s Brandt submitted work to various illustrated magazines, including Picture Post and Lilliput, and published several books. He developed an expressive style, combining social observation with a subtle streak of strangeness. During the 1940s he also worked as a portraitist and landscape photographer. From 1945 Brandt began to concentrate on the female nude, using a wide-angle lens to produce images of surreal distortion.

Throughout his life he photographed everyday occurrences. During the Blitz of World War II he photographed London at night when the crowds took refuge in the underground to escape from the destructive chaos that was happening above. After the war he then changed his style of work, he moved on to exploring nudes, portraits and landscapes. His nude photos were classified as exploring the modern abstraction and sculpture. Brandt regarded darkroom work as crucial and liked to complete his images by retouching and enhancing them with pen and pencil. 
The lighting within his work has been carefully thought out as to where the angle of the picture should be taken from to capture the full essence of the subject matter. Most of his works have been associated with surrealism as he explores different angles and subjects to create imaginative photographs. I find his work very fascinating and engaging as when I look at his work I feel a sense for fear as well as invitation to his photos. As his images are in black and white it simplifies the subject matter and evokes more of an emotion whether that being fear or warmth towards them. My initial thoughts on his images are that they are quite spooky but when looking at them I feel as if I am being drawn in to find out more information about his intentions of creating the images and why he had chosen that particular subject matter and what he is trying to achieve from the photographs. 
His famous photograph 'Ear on the Beach' 1957 reminds me of being on holiday in Britain as the sky is cloudy but even if the weather is bad we still spend the day on the beach.

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso, 25th October 1881 - 8 April 1973, was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and stage designer. Light drawings are when an artists uses a slow shutter speed on a camera then captures the subject of the light in the hands of an artist creating the image. Photographer Gjon Milli visited Picasso in 1949 and showed him some of his photographs where tiny lights affixed to the skates of ice skaters jumping in the dark. This made Picasso begin to think about the different possibilities of images you can create with light. This led Picasso onto creating a series of light drawings. They were made with a small flashlight in a dark room.

 The meanings of his light drawings I could not find however I think that the use of a yellow light in his image of the vase symbolises that the flowers could be sunflowers or various yellow flowers. In his other light drawings it is clear to see what his drawings are of. In quite a few he has drawn the silhouette people and himself. The scale of the work is large as you can see faint images of his movement in the background. In my opinion I think that this makes the images more unique to Picasso as you can see him. I like that he has been inspired and has experimented with light drawings as it is not like Picasso's usual work. It shows that an artist does not have to have a certain theme or movement with their work, It shows that he is a more versatile artist. However the art movement that his work mainly was is surrealism. 


When I first saw his light drawing images I didn't think of it as being Picasso's work as I associate Picasso with his works such as his 'blue' period. In my opinion it is nice to see that Picasso has done other forms of art rather than his paintings because it shows that he is more talented than just being able to paint, and that he gets inspired by other artists and explores more into their work by creating his own images in the style of others like Gjon Milli. To me his light drawings make me feel free, this is because of the soft bright lines created be the light are not straight pointy lines, they're smooth calm lines created by the light source. When looking at the different images i prefer to think of them as sound waves rather than a subject in a photo. The reason for this is because of the simplicity of lines symbolize a calm tone of sound to me. 

Light Mindmap

This is a Mind map I created which is based on various forms of light, also including artists relating to light.

Light Mood Board

Our new brief is on the theme of 'light', throughout the theme of light, me will be exploring the use of light in different ways, creating pictures with laser pens and experimenting with using SLR cameras. We will then explore the theme of light in our own way to come up with imaginative ideas within the theme of light. We will be looking at different artists such as Cindy Sherman, Pablo Picasso and Andy Potts.

Links to the images:

one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen